Category Archives: New Releases

The book, “A Stroll on the Old Lady” continues to receive Rave Reviews

(St. Andrews, Scotland) July 3, 2016- As players prepare for The Open Championship, Author Taba Dale takes to the road in Scotland for a multi-stop book tour where she’ll share her recently-released book, A STROLL ON THE OLD LADY.

Dale’s book provides a peek into the lore of golf and its charmed surroundings. This collection of enchanted stories, each based from a unique links-land setting, will be the topic of discussion as Dale visits several venues chronicled in her latest work, A STROLL ON THE OLD LADY.

The book tour itinerary includes a stop at Scotland’s Stuart Castle, the enchanting site where Dale penned the chapter Thin Red Line. Next, The Marcliffe Hotel, which served as the inspirational setting for Dale’s story Monarch of the Marcliffe. The book tour will also take the talented author back to St. Andrews, The Home of Golf, and for which the book, A STROLL ON THE OLD LADY, is affectionately titled.

The tour wouldn’t be complete without a stop at The Open at Royal Troon, where some of the world’s greatest tour players will vie for the coveted championship title. Before the book tour is complete Dale plans to also visit Prestwick, site of the first Open Championship and the setting of the book’s opening story Birthplace of The Open. The tour wraps up at Machrihanish Golf Club, which ironically is the scene of the book’s closing story, Knock the Spots Off.

According to Dale, her well-mapped book tour also serves as an opportunity to thank those who inspired her to write the series of stories found within the 154-page book, published by Clare House Publishing and available on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/ where it is tagged as a Best Book of 2016 So Far.

Dale is a golf aficionado and the ultimate golf insider, one that is welcomed where very few writers have ever been—the inner sanctum of many exclusive golf clubs. Her infectious wit and authenticity allow the reader to vicariously view golf historic sites, providing an unprecedented behind-the-scenes look at some of the most elite golf clubs.

A STROLL ON THE OLD LADY is available in paperback at Amazon ($14.95). Additionally, Dale is the author of A Summer in Ireland–Life and Golf on the Emerald Isle, which is also available through Amazon. For more stories and to learn more about Dale and her fine work, visit www.ClareHousePublishing.com. To schedule an interview or book signing with Author Taba Dale, send inquiries to: tabadale@gmail.com.

MORE ABOUT AUTHOR TABA DALE Having grown up in Washington, D.C. amidst world-class museums, Taba Dale has worked as a fine art dealer for thirty-seven years and became the first to market golf art online by creating the Scottsdale Collection in 1988. Dale is Co-Founder of Legacy of the Links, a management and consulting company for tournaments, golf events overseas, unique fundraising projects, and other events. She is the Co-Founder of the Top 100 Invitational, which celebrates the great golf clubs and courses that have been included on various top 100 United States and world ranking lists.Dale spends her summers in Ireland writing and frequently visits Scotland and other European countries.

Author Bo Links, avid golfer and steward of the game has just released his newest book: GOLF POEMS – The Greatest Game in Rhythm and Rhyme. This well-written collection of poems provides a riveting reflection about the game, one that will resonate with any golfer who picks up this handy pocket-size book. As the title implies, the book conveys a meaningful image as to what makes the game so engaging, so special.

Here is Bo to tell us a little bit about the book.

1. What motivated you to write Golf Poems: The Greatest Game in Rhythm and Rhyme?
The game has always fascinated me. Every round is an adventure, no two shots alike. I wanted to capture the essence of all this in a little book that would be accessible to everyone. I also enjoy the game with my friends at the 19th hole and I wanted to provide stanzas for toasts that can be used any time, any place — but which will strike a responsive chord with golfers anywhere in the world.

2. You’ve described this book as an exploration of golf? Please explain how and why?
What is it like to be afraid on the green? Anyone who’s been there knows what I’m talking about. So go read “Desperate Thoughts of A Bad Putter.” It cuts to the bone with respect to a fear over a three-footer for all the marbles. The same is true when it comes to wind, which is the game’s most difficult (and fickle) challenge. So I wrote “The Wind By Any Name.” I’ve tried to touch on all aspects of the game in a very short, little space.

2. This is an impressive compilation of poems, which echo your thoughts and feelings about the game of golf. Within the collection you must have a favorite. If so, which poem and why?These poems are like children. I love them all. And within them, there are stanzas that ring in my ears. Like this final one from “Home on the Range.” It speaks to the fact that optimism is a vital trait we should all cultivate:

For the true golfer knows
That dreams never die
As long as he swings
And continues to try.

There is a similar vein in that poem about the wind:

When, at last
The sun has set
And dusk begins to grow
With all our strokes recorded
We’ll reflect, and smile, and know
That though the wind was raging
And stole from us the score
We’ll rise at dawn tomorrow
To battle it once more.

3. You’ve given back to the game of golf for many years now, especially through your ongoing advocacy work in support of public golf. One of the projects you are most passionate about is “Saving SharpPark“… a MacKenzie-designed golf course, in Pacifica, Calif. You’ve even written a poem about this course which appears in Golf Poems. Why such a connection to this modest, public course?
There’s an old saying: Still waters run deep. A corollary is that simple things touch us the deepest.SharpPark is a simple place, but the vibe there is so undeniably pure that it represents all that is good about the game. There is no class distinction there; no division. We’re all equals, fighting the same fight, struggling against the same demons. And when the battle is over, we retire to the same bar to drink together, laugh together and sometimes to cry together. And when you consider that all of this takes place in an incredibly beautiful place, where Alister MacKenzie worked his magic for public course golfers 80 year ago….well, how can you not save it? I can’t say it any better than that.

4. Golf Poems isn’t the only book you’ve penned. What other pieces of work have you written/published?
My first book, Follow the Wind, is the story of a young boy who meets up with Ben Hogan. Together they explore the richness of life itself and what makes golf such an important part of it. The story had touched golfers (and non-golfers) the world over. I once bumped into Deane Beman, former PGA TOUR commissioner, who told me he regularly read the story to his grandchildren when they were growing up. Quite a compliment.

My second book, Riverbank Tweed & Roadmap Jenkins: Tales from the Caddie Yard, is a series of related short stores, all told in a caddie’s laconic voice. I apply golf’s many lessons to life beyond the fairway. The characters are unforgettable, as are the events that take place. A game of “one ball” at Harding Park and a US Open qualifier during a lightning storm at Cypress Point.

I’ve also written several extended essays about golf in San Francisco, including Return to Glory (about the 2005 AmEx battle between Tiger Woods and John Daly at the restored Harding Park) and More Than A Game (about the 2009 Presidents Cup Match at Harding as well as the establishment of a First Tee facility at a troubled middle school in the middle of one of the City’s worst neighborhoods).

I try and strike a responsive chord with golfers the world over. Ben Crenshaw recently wrote to me after reading Golf Poems to say that the game is fortunate to have people like me out there writing about it with such passion. It was one of the nicest compliments I’ve ever received.

5. If you had only one round of golf left to play, where would it be (name course) and who would accompany you in the foursome?The Old Course atSt. Andrews with Ben Crenshaw, Bobby Jones and Old Tom Morris…playing with Old Tom’s equipment.

About the Author

BO LINKS is a San Francisco attorney and an avid golfer and has spent a lifetime plumbing the depths of the ancient game. He has written two previous golf books: Follow the Wind and Riverbank Tweed and Roadmap Jenkins-Tales from the Caddie Yard. Links has dabbled in golf architecture (having twice won the Lido Design Contest sponsored by the Alister MacKenzie Society), and helped organize local golfers through the San Francisco Public Golf Alliance in an effort to preserve affordable golf. His latest effort in that regard has been the battle to Save Sharp Park, a treasured Alister MacKenzie course located in Pacifica, CA, just 10 miles south of San Francisco. He has served on the United States Golf Association’s Green Section Committee for more than 20 years and is frequently a keynote speaker at golf association meetings and conferences addressing issues of immense importance to golfers and the golf industry.If you are interested in Bo Links as a featured speaker for your organization or corporate golf outing, contact Patty Burness at (415) 564-3890 or via pburness@sbcglobal.net.

It’s been 10 years since Bradley Klein first published his well-received survey of the artistry of Donald Ross. It was lauded at the time as “…the most thoroughly researched book ever produced on the life and work of a golf course architect.” (Brian McCallen, Golf Magazine).

Here is what Bradley has to say about this new expanded edition:

What motivated you to write such a detailed chronicle about the life and work of golf course architect Donald Ross?

I am a trained academic, used to working for weeks and years in libraries, and there was no sustained, serious book about the life work of any designer that wasn’t a puff piece. So I thought it was time to explore a golf course architect as a craftsman and as a professional and to treat them much like one might treat a musician, writer or artist for what influenced them and how their entire body of work evolved.

The expanded edition deals with restoration developments the last ten years; how Ross and classical design became an accepted part of the American golf course landscape; and how in the process Pinehurst No. 2 has been totally reshaped.

In addition to your work as architectural editor for Golfweek, you are considered an authority on the work of Donald Ross. What separates his design work from other course architects?

He did exquisite routings — incredibly efficient, no wasted space on the site, and he had a simplicity of form and yet endless variation of shot angle, of deflection into the green, and of the consequences for a slightly off line shot. He was subtle — something that is sorely lacking today and that even his contemporaries were not strong on.

Conducting research on the life of Ross must have been a project in itself. Where did it take you? Any unusual discoveries?

Three years, 150+ courses, every house Ross lived in, I even slept in two of his bedrooms, found his old caddie in Pinehurst, kneeled at his grave, spent a lot of time with his daughter and also his granddaughter, even walked the path he took off the boat in Boston when he arrived in April 1899. Spent 100 days in Pinehurst, and the folks at the Resort were very gracious in putting up with me.

After completing this 2nd edition of Discovering Donald Ross, are there any unanswered questions about this gentleman or his work? If Ross were alive today what questions would you be compelled to ask?

I am amazed at his ceaseless train travel; I’d like to ask if he regrets having done so many courses (400) that he couldn’t see them all or refine many of them. I’d also like to know what he would do differently with today’s distances; he was designing in an era when 200 yards was a good drive.

About Bradley Klein

Bradley S. Klein is architecture editor of Golfweek magazine and runs its national golf course rating system. A former PGA Tour caddie and 2006 inductee into the International Caddie Hall of Fame, he holds a Ph.D. in political science and enjoyed a distinguished academic career in international relations before retiring from university research and teaching in 1999 to devote himself full time to golf writing.

He has written and lectured widely on sports media, golf design, the golf development industry, golf course operations and maintenance. He is also a design consultant, including involvement in Old Macdonald, the fourth course at Bandon Dunes Resort in Oregon, opened in 2010.

Klein won the Golf Writers Association of America’s award for the best column of 2006. His golf books include a collection of essays, “Rough Meditations” (1997, 2006), and two club histories, “Desert Forest Golf Club: The First Forty Years” (2004) and “Sebonack: Classic Golf by Jack Nicklaus and Tom Doak” (2006, 2009). His next book, due out in 2012, is “Wide Open Fairways: The Landscapes of Golf.”

A detailed look deep inside the exclusive Knightsbridge Golf School founded by Leslie King in 1951. Famous for training such notables as Sean Connery (for this Goldfinger golf match), King’s approach to teaching the golf swing is well respected and continues to this day.

“Leslie King was one of the greatest students of the golf swing.” Gary Player

“Leslie King’s method is adaptable for the masses. It’s not for only one type of player. Anybody can learn to play golf the way he teaches.” Bob Toski

Sirius XM Radio host and New York Times best selling author Matt Adams has assembled a compendium of inspiring golf quotes–and there are many. One reason for their quotability might be because they apply so well to the game of life.

Here are a few:

“I think that to score in golf is a matter of confidence, if you think you cannot do it, then there is no chance that you will.” — Sir Henry Cotton, Open Champion 1934, 1937, 1948, Ryder Cup Captain 1947 and 1953.

“Don’t hurry, don’t worry. You are only here for a short visit, so don’t forget to stop and smell the roses.” –Walter Hagen, U.S. Open Champion 1914, 1919, Open Champion 1922, 1924, 1928, 1929, PGA Champion, 1921, 1924, 1925, 1926, 1927.

“Golf reflects the cycle of life. No matter what you shoot, the next day you have to go back to the first tee and begin all over again and make yourself into something.” — Peter Jacobsen, U.S. Senior Open Champion 2004, Senior Players Champion 2005.

“It would be much better if she and her ilk stayed at home, got themselves prettied up and waited for the phone to ring.”

Fortunately for us Babe Didrikson Zaharias did not listen to sportswriter Joe Williams but the quote does capture the state of affairs for women athletes in the early 20th Century.

Named one of the Top 10 athletes of the 20th Century, Babe Didrikson Zaharias’s accomplishments are legendary.

-Two track and field Gold Medals and one Silver Medal (1932 Los Angeles Olympics)
-All-American status in basketball
-Expert diver, roller-skater, and bowler
-The first (and currently only) woman in history to make the cut in a regular PGA Tour event

(Oh, and she was an expert seamstress making many of the clothes she wore, including her golfing outfits.)

In this biography of Babe’s life, author Don Van Natta Jr. brings to life the extraordinary life and sporting career of golf’s first female superstar.

A founding member of the LPGA, Babe (named after Babe Ruth) won more consecutive tournaments than any golfer in history. But near the peak of her fame she was diagnosed with colon cancer. Never one to give up, a month after undergoing surgery Babe won her 10th and final major with a U.S. Women’s Open championship.

“Wonder Girl is a wonderful read about a woman who charged through life shattering stereotypes on the playing fields and off. As a boy I followed her amazing career in the sports pages as she changed the face of golf and the Olympics but now, thanks to Don Van Natta, I have the complete story of this authentically American trail blazer who was so much more than just a gifted athlete.” (Tom Brokaw )

This new golf game from IGS featuring Hank Haney is off to an inauspicious start with decidedly mixed reviews: 8 1 star and 4 in the 4/5 star range as of this writing. Still, the price is right and it does come with a bonus instruction video collection billed as Haney’s greatest tips.